CMES and ACANSRS present
Michael Barry
Lecturer, Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University
Brilliantly reflected in the medieval Persian-language epic poetry of Firdawsî and Nizâmî - illustrated by the finest miniaturists throughout the lands that are today Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and India - Alexander's encounters with different civilizations from the Nile to the Indus resulted in his mythological metamorphosis into a son of Egypt's last Pharaoh, into a worshiper of the True God in Jerusalem's Temple, into a thunder-wielding guardian of the Buddha, into the builder of an enchanted rampart in Syriac Christianity and in the Koran, and most especially into a new manifestation of the Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh: whose spiritual initiation as far as magic horizons, and life’s limit, tragically stops at the threshold of death, barring him from attaining the Fountain of Immortality.
(Dr. Barry will deliver Part I: The Persian and Afghan Romance of Alexander the Great : Part I, the Conqueror, at Boston University, on Monday, March 21; information on location and time to be announced.)
Co-sponsor: Association for Central Asian Civilizations and Silk Road Studies
Contact: Liz Flanagan